Fictions of emancipation : Carpeaux's Why born enslaved! reconsidered / edited by Elyse Nelson and Wendy S. Walters.

Contributor(s):

Material type: Text

text
still image

Media type:

unmediated

Carrier type:

volume

ISBN:

9781588397447
1588397440

Subject(s):

Genre/Form:

DDC classification:

730.92 NEL

LOC classification:

NB553.C3 A78 2022

Contents:

Preface / Sarah E. Lawrence -- In the gallery / Wendy S. Walters -- Introduction / Wendy S. Walters and Elyse Nelson -- The vanquished unchained : abolition and emancipation in sculpture of the Atlantic world / Adrienne L. Childs -- White fragility : abolitionist porcelain in revolutionary France / Iris Moon -- Sculpting about slavery in the Second Empire / Elyse Nelson -- Plates -- Dressing up/stripping down : ethnographic sculpture as colonizing act / James Smalls -- Presumptions on the figure, given the absences / Wendy S. Walters -- Reproducing and refusing Carpeaux / Caitlin Meehye Beach -- Chronology / Rachel Hunter Himes.

Summary: "This groundbreaking publication on Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux's (1827-1875) bust Why Born Enslaved! examines the work in the context of transatlantic abolitionist movements and France's colonialist fascination with Africa in the nineteenth century. Thoughtful essays by noted art historians and literary scholars, including Adrienne L. Childs, James Smalls, and Wendy S. Walters, unpack European artists' engagement with the Black figure, simultaneously evoked as a changeable political symbol and a representation of exoticized beauty and desire. The authors compare Carpeaux's sculpture to works by his contemporaries, such as Charles-Henri-Joseph Cordier, Edmonia Lewis, and Louis Simon Boizot, as well as to objects by twenty-first-century artists Kara Walker and Kehinde Wiley. In so doing, the book critically examines the portrayal of Black emancipation and personhood; the commodification of Black images to assert social capital; the role of sculpture in generating the sympathies of its audiences; and the relevance of Carpeaux's sculpture to legacies of empire in the postcolonial present. It will also feature a chronology of events central to the nineteenth-century antislavery movement."--Publisher's description.Summary: "Organized around a single object--the marble bust Why Born Enslaved! by French sculptor Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux--Fictions of Emancipation: Carpeaux Recast is the first exhibition at The Met to examine Western sculpture in relation to the histories of transatlantic slavery, colonialism, and empire. Created in the wake of American emancipation and some twenty years after the abolition of slavery in the French Atlantic, Why Born Enslaved! was shaped by the enduring popularity of antislavery imagery, the development of nineteenth-century ethnographic theories of racial difference, and France's colonialist fascination with Africa. The exhibition will explore the sculpture's place within these contexts. Featuring more than thirty-five works of art in sections unfolding around Carpeaux's sculpture, Fictions of Emancipation will offer an in-depth look at portrayals of Black enslavement, emancipation, and personhood with an aim toward challenging the notion that representation in the wake of abolition constitutes a clear moral or political stance. Important works by Josiah Wedgwood, Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, Charles Cordier, Edmonia Lewis, Louis-Simon Boizot, and others will show how Western artists of the nineteenth century engaged with the Black figure as a political symbol and site of exoticized beauty, while contemporary sculptures by Kara Walker and Kehinde Wiley will connect the dialogue around Carpeaux's bust to current conversations about the legacies of slavery in the Western world. This exhibition was conceived in collaboration with guest curator Wendy S. Walters and enriched through conversations with numerous intellectual partners. It is one of many projects that the Museum is undertaking in an effort to reassess and broaden the narratives it presents about the past and present."--Metropolitan Museum of Art website.

Holdings
Item type	Current library	Call number	Status	Date due	Barcode
Standard Loan	LSAD Library Main Collection	730.92 NEL (Browse shelf(Opens below))	Available		39002100605741

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A critical reexamination of Carpeaux's bust Why Born Enslaved! and other nineteenth-century antislavery images--this book interrogates the treatment of the Black figure as a malleable political symbol and locus of exoticized beauty

This critical reexamination of Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux's iconic bust Why Born Enslaved! unpacks the sculpture's complex and sometimes contradictory engagement with an antislavery discourse. Noted art historians and writers discuss how categories of racial difference grew in popularity in the nineteenth century alongside a crescendo in cultural production in France during the Second Empire. By focusing on Why Born Enslaved! and comparing it to works by Carpeaux's contemporaries on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as to objects by twenty-first-century artists Kara Walker and Kehinde Wiley, this volume explores such key themes as the portrayal of Black enslavement and emancipation; the commodification of images of Black figures; the role of sculpture in generating the sympathies of its audiences; and the relevance of Carpeaux's sculpture to legacies of empire. The book also provides a chronology of events central to the histories of transatlantic slavery, abolition, colonialism, and empire.

Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Distributed by Yale University Press

Exhibition Schedule:

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
(March 10, 2022-March 5, 2023)

"This catalogue is published in conjunction with Fictions of Emancipation: Carpeaux Recast, on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, from March 10, 2022, through March 5, 2023"--Title page verso.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 124-126) and index.

"This groundbreaking publication on Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux's (1827-1875) bust Why Born Enslaved! examines the work in the context of transatlantic abolitionist movements and France's colonialist fascination with Africa in the nineteenth century. Thoughtful essays by noted art historians and literary scholars, including Adrienne L. Childs, James Smalls, and Wendy S. Walters, unpack European artists' engagement with the Black figure, simultaneously evoked as a changeable political symbol and a representation of exoticized beauty and desire. The authors compare Carpeaux's sculpture to works by his contemporaries, such as Charles-Henri-Joseph Cordier, Edmonia Lewis, and Louis Simon Boizot, as well as to objects by twenty-first-century artists Kara Walker and Kehinde Wiley. In so doing, the book critically examines the portrayal of Black emancipation and personhood; the commodification of Black images to assert social capital; the role of sculpture in generating the sympathies of its audiences; and the relevance of Carpeaux's sculpture to legacies of empire in the postcolonial present. It will also feature a chronology of events central to the nineteenth-century antislavery movement."--Publisher's description.

"Organized around a single object--the marble bust Why Born Enslaved! by French sculptor Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux--Fictions of Emancipation: Carpeaux Recast is the first exhibition at The Met to examine Western sculpture in relation to the histories of transatlantic slavery, colonialism, and empire. Created in the wake of American emancipation and some twenty years after the abolition of slavery in the French Atlantic, Why Born Enslaved! was shaped by the enduring popularity of antislavery imagery, the development of nineteenth-century ethnographic theories of racial difference, and France's colonialist fascination with Africa. The exhibition will explore the sculpture's place within these contexts. Featuring more than thirty-five works of art in sections unfolding around Carpeaux's sculpture, Fictions of Emancipation will offer an in-depth look at portrayals of Black enslavement, emancipation, and personhood with an aim toward challenging the notion that representation in the wake of abolition constitutes a clear moral or political stance. Important works by Josiah Wedgwood, Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, Charles Cordier, Edmonia Lewis, Louis-Simon Boizot, and others will show how Western artists of the nineteenth century engaged with the Black figure as a political symbol and site of exoticized beauty, while contemporary sculptures by Kara Walker and Kehinde Wiley will connect the dialogue around Carpeaux's bust to current conversations about the legacies of slavery in the Western world. This exhibition was conceived in collaboration with guest curator Wendy S. Walters and enriched through conversations with numerous intellectual partners. It is one of many projects that the Museum is undertaking in an effort to reassess and broaden the narratives it presents about the past and present."--Metropolitan Museum of Art website.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Elyse Nelson is assistant curator of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century European sculpture in the Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Wendy S. Walters is concentration head in nonfiction and associate professor in the Writing Program of the School of the Arts at Columbia University, New York.